While setting up this saw, I found that the pawls did not fit in its slot well. I wanted to adjust the pawls and loosened the screw on the pawl. That did not affect how it fits in the slot.The problem is now I can’t get the screw to tighten again. The slotted silver bolt with the spring on it won’t stay in the hole any longer. I don’t think there is a missing part but not sure. The manual doesn’t show a breakdown of the parts for the pawls. Anyone had experience with this problem? Does your 4512 have the same parts as in the attached picture?

2 replies so far

Can’t help with the pawls, but before you muck with it too much, check your 4512 for the alignment issues that plague a good portion of those manufactured; the miter slot to blade parallelism changes when changing height.

DW – I just returned my 4512 on Sunday. NiteWalker is right, check the alignment. It’s a great saw, powerful, quiet and smooth. But the problem I and many others had is that the blade shifts to and away from the fence when raising and lowering.Along with this shifting, it does change parallelism with the fence at different heights.

I ruined about $100 in plywood before I realized it. What happens is that the back of the blade shifts about 1/8” away from the fence. When you push the piece through it, even though it starts out aligned with the fence, the wood tracks with the blade and riving knife, pulling it away from the fence (1/16” per 6 or so inches of exposed blade) so over a 4’ length of wood, you end up with a trapezoid with the leading edge about 1/2” shorter than the base. Tough to see on a 20” wide board. The following cuts (from the same piece) end up as parallelograms.

To top it off, I almost had a wicked kickback cutting a 2 1/2” tall piece – with the blade up all the way, the blade shift seems to reverse and go TOWARD the fence, pinching the work piece.

When I returned the saw, the tool guys at HD and I went through all the saws they had in stock and they ALL had the same issue. I’m happy that they RTV’d all of them.

-- Anything is possible when you have no idea what you're talking about.